It is hard to believe so much time has passed not only for when we last posted an article but how fast the time goes. This year, 2015 in March, we had to say goodbye to our sweet cat Lucky. We wrote an article back in 2012 on how Lucky came into our lives but we have been bad about following up on stories of his life with us. We all get too busy in our lives sometimes to share. Sometimes we share too much. But occasionally the stories hit home and can help with your own pets.
Lucky had a great life with us. He had his routines as all cats do. Wake us up in the morning for breakfast, find the best sun spot for the morning nap, have lunch, find the best spot for that afternoon nap. As he aged he seemed to snuggle more and want to be as warm as possible. We would find him laying directly on the heat vent in the dining room, waiting for the heat to go on. Or if we had a fire in the fireplace, he would be in the cat bed as close to it as he could. His whole life he had a respiratory problem. Probably from being hit by a car when we found him, possible a concussion, he just never grew out of it so being food persnickety was his MO.
This slowed him down a bit and made him a bit lethargic. At age 7 we started giving him vitamins and supplements, once a day. Basic stuff, mega antioxidants, chelated minerals, vitamin C. I had contacted a vet that was researching kidney disease in cats. He wanted to use a high quality supplement for his research and found the company USANA which was the company we actually were using for ourselves. They had been finding great results in their research and we found that over 100 vets around the country were recommending these as well. So after figuring out dosage, we tried it on Lucky. We started seeing some positive results. He had more energy, his appetite improved, and even his respiratory issues reduced. We kept him on these supplements for his last 7 years. I have to say we have been owned by many a cat, and they all had some type of health issue when they passed. Lucky actually passed of old age, no thyroid, kidney, heart, or even cancer. Just old age.
This has convinced me to start our 6 year old, Buddy on these supplements. Our pets are not getting enough nutrition in their foods. Just like our human food source, there is limited nutrition. They have not improved the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) on our foods or on our pet foods. We all should be supplementing with high quality supplements. You might ask how I gave Lucky the supplements. I had learned that you need to administer pills or drops out of their comfort zone. Meaning, don’t try to do it down at their level, do it at your level where you have the control. I would pick Lucky up, turn him on his back on the bed, lean into him and grab his front paws. Then drop the pills in the back of his throat. We had it down to such a routine, he was very comfortable with it and of course liked the treat he got afterwards. Not all cats are easy, I am finding Buddy is hard to get but once on the bed, he relents.
Here is a great article from the Vet, Scott Echols, that we talked to: http://whatsupusana.com/2015/05/should-i-give-my-pet-vitamins/.
We truly enjoyed the 14 years we had with Lucky and still miss seeing him in his hangouts. 
Just a cat toy note….Lucky loved the Real rabbit fur cat toy, the cat charmer, and rabbit fur mouse with rattle. When he was feeling feisty he would chase these around our hardwood floors and then we would find them in his cat beds. Lucky is one of the original Kats’N Us staffers that helped start our company. Cats love their toys!